Today is Friday, the 21st of December.  We arrived in San Antonio last Thursday, the Thursday, December 13.  We took Saturday and acted like a couple tourist.  This photo was taken at "The Japanese Garden" which is a garden created by Japanese families in an old quarry in San Antonio.  These people were "relocated" during WWII, even though they had sons serving in the US Army.

This shot is also inside the Japanese Gardens.  We were quite fascinated by the florals and the stone work.

This is a shot of a large canopy that overlooks the Japanese Gardens.  It was probably a hundred feet across.  There was a bit of serious engineering involved here.

This shot is of a Mesquite Tree outside the San Jose Mission on the North side of San Antonio.  It grows along the ground.  Nature is really a very fascinating adventure.

We played a round of golf (I played and Kay kept the score and drove the cart) at a course in San Antonio called The Quarry. The back nine was built in an abandoned quarry and presented some beautiful sceenery,along with some fantastic golf holes.  This hole is called "Reload".  it takes a drivde to clear 175 yard raveene, with what seems like a postage stamp sized landing zone.  If you miss, you don't even look for the ball.  You just reload.

There were a dozen turtles on the rocks in a Quarry hole, as Kay was sneaking up to shoot this photo.  As you will note, if you look closely, most of them decided to be camera shy.

We took a boat tour on The River Walk in the heart of San Antonio.  The place is full of history.  We realized we failed to get a picture of The Alamo.  For some reason, it seems out of place in the middle of San Antonio,completely surrounded by Commerce.  We are going to go back down town this afternoon and see an IMax Theater movie on the Alamo.

December 14, 2012

And here you have Katie Caddie Cart Driver at hole #7 along the Colorado River at Pine Forest Golf Course in Bastrop, TX.

This would be hole #11 at the same golf course.  You have to hit the ball about 185 yards to get it over the deep ravine and hit that tan spot. (And it has to go straight or it's lost forever.)  Kim did it the first time he tried.  We were so excited.  The ravine is very deep and filled with water.  No chasing lost balls there.

We left Bastrop yesterday and made it all the way to San Antonio, 84 miles further south.  We found a most amazing golf course in Bastrop.  Five holes run along the Colorado River (of which we are told not to get in because it is the home to poisonous snakes.)  The other holes are in the hills and over the canyons.  A couple of photos above.

December 4, 2012

The locals tell us that the weather is unseasonably warm in North Texas.  That has been just fine with us.  83 degrees on December 2 was just fine. 

We have moved to Bastrop, Texas.  We may be here a week or a month, probably more like a week.  It's a nice spot though.  Quiet with open areas around us.  In Arlington, we were less than a mile from Costco, Target, Best Buy, and a huge mall.  We just left there yesterday, so no pictures yet of Bastrop.

Dallas Temple.  Kim's cousin's son, David Shumway greeted us at the door the second time we went to the temple.

Kim's golf instructor at Lake Arlington Golf Course.  I wish you could see thed blue around this roadrunner's eyes.  This was about the best pose he gave us. 

On the dock at Lake Arlington.  There are lots of lakes around the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Sunday dinner, December 2, 2012 at Treetop RV Park, Arlington, TX.

November 22, 2012, Thanksgiving Day, here in Arlington, Texas

This is truly a day of Thanksgiving.  We feel a tremendous love in our hearts for so many things, foremost among them are friends, family, and loved ones.

Yesterday marked a momentous occasion for us.  It was our "43 & 1" Anniversary.  It was 43 years ago yesterday that we started this joined trek as husband and wife.  And it was one year ago today, this Thanksgiving Day, that we were told our joined trek here was coming to a premature end, with the diagnosis of ALS.  This was a date we were told we would most likely not see, and surely not a second one after this.

Isn't it amazing what the powers of prayer, love and priesthood, along with minds and means to seek and concur the unfathomable, and some old fashion grit, can accomplish?

As far as Kim's health is going, we are not only holding our own, but continue to slowly improve from day to day.  We are still working more than we are playing, but are continuing to work on the transition of being retired, but still realizing we have much to do.

We are still promoting Extendo Bed Company, but are now starting to move toward doing what we feel is our destiny, and that is to advance the Sling Pitcher to where it can be a blessing in the lives of many. And along with that, continuing to advance what we believe may be a cure for the dreaded ALS.

We so appreciate our friends, and family from home and all over the country.  We miss the daily contact with many of you, but look forward to the future, and are so grateful we still enjoy each others company and association.  Our home-away-from-home is much too small to inhabit with but the closest of friends.  Luckily, we are both sharing it with our best friend.

These are a few shots of our "43 & 1" Day.  Thank you for sharing your lives with us.  Please respond to our blog and let us know how you are doing.  And to any of our PALS friends, never ever give up.  We pray all of you may find the success we have found.  You are in our hearts, prayers, and minds.

Kim & Kay

We went to the small town of Mineral Wells, about 45 miles West Fort Worth.  We had a nice little lunch of Soup and Salad, one of our staples, at a Bistro called Brazos.

We continue to add miles to our bikes every chance we get, since they frequently tag along behind us.  During some of the rougher times the past couple years, they got very little use. We are making up for lost time.

We enjoyed a nice view over Lake Mineral Wells.  Just behind us was a rock cliff many "younger" adventurers were repelling.  It was a reminder of how the years have passed so swiftly.  We sat on a similar rock ledge overlooking the Pacific Ocean on our honeymoon just a short 43 years  ago.  Back then, the repelling would have been a temptation.

We visited the Vietnam War Memorial in Mineral Wells close to where many of the helicopter pilots were trained.  Nice November weather, No?

At the Vietnam Memorial in Mineral Wells is a replica of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC.  Like many of you, we well remember the Life Magazine photos and stories of that War.  Kim's poor hearing kept him out of the war, but our hearts still go out to the many names there listed, and to the many more that still carried the scars of that war in their hearts and lives.

We ended our day with a very nice dinner of baked oysters that close to equal those of sweet Genevieves, a fantastic Wild  Atlantic Salmon dinner, and a sweet Pecan Pie a-la-mode that cheated on the diet just a little.

Kim's just going for a quick dive. (Still doing great!)

Kim is in "Time Out".  Really very comfy!

Enjoying a dinner with Bethany (Kim's Niece) & Brandon, Gainesville, TX.

Kay is doing a little studying while standing on her pedestal vibrator

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Welcome to our spacious Dinning Area!

 

And our "Game Room" for a little Quiddler

Arlington, Texas

The new home office / dining room

The acreage in Arlington, at least there are trees

The music man in the outdoor dining room

Front door, note the November clothing

Kim at work

The Cherry's will beat ALS and keep warm this winter.

Of all the photos we have taken in our travels, this one is the most unique.  Note the pumpjacks (or nodding donkeys) in the background.  This is just out our back window of our motor home.  We didn't say we were looking for the most beautiful places, mainly the warm places.

Welcome to our blog

Our purpose is to share with family and friends our travels and experiences through the South this winter.  Also, we wish to share with you and any other interested parties, especially any PALS (a well known acronym for those of us so inflicted, “People with ALS”), our ongoing battle with the dreaded disease.

As many of you know, we listed our business, Extendo Bed Company, in November, 2011, as we were told we should get our affairs in order.  With the prognosis of ALS came not only the prediction of a short life expectancy, but also the expectation that Kim’s ability to physically run the Company would be months, if not weeks.

The doctors had nothing to offer, and were not even inclined to schedule follow-up visits until we requested hospice care.  So we excluded all the traditional medicine, and any doctors unwilling or unable to “think outside the box”, and decided to take control of our own destiny.

And now, almost year later, through faith, prayers, priesthood blessings, and a vigorous research and application into “non-traditional” answers to our challenges, we are opening a new and exciting chapter to our lives.  Using those professionals that are indeed willing to “think outside the box”, we have turned our fate around. 

Extendo Bed Company sold in May, but due to our miraculous change in fate, Kim accepted a position with the new owners to continue working as a national sales rep, expanding sales in the Southern States. We chose the South because a lingering affect of the ALS is Kim’s inability to be able to breath in cooler weather.

Thus Chapter One begins:

Our first destination was Odessa, TX to attend the Permian Basin International Oil Show.  Our journey to that destination was not quite as smooth as we anticipated.  We couldn’t get into the RV Park in Salt Lake City as anticipated so parked in front of some friends home on 6th North.  We thought we could get into a park in Cortez, CO, but couldn’t find it.  So we parked in a Wal Mart parking lot for the night.  Finally we connected with an RV park in Clovis, NM, but that night the electric in motor home did not work.  The next day we arrived in Odessa.  Guess what?  We had a reservation there and the electric worked again.  It was a good thing we had a reservation because the demand for RV park space is very heavy in this oil country.  After a couple of days with electric, the power in the motor home again went out.  So we made a “quick?” run to Denton, TX to get it fixed. 

Back in Odessa/Midland area, Kim has been working to promote Extendo Bed in the area.  He will be working on leads all over the southern states, in addition to expanding sales in our traditional markets.   We will probably head toward Lubbock and Amarillo on Oct 29 or 30. 

We will try to do an update every couple of weeks.  And remember to use the camera, more photos, fewer words.